Page 87 of Tarnished Reign

“Ari?” I ask.

“Lady, all I know is we’re getting you to the airport, and a private jet will take it from there.”

A jet? Oh God, the auction.

They’re going to sell me.

Hopelessness washes over me, so deep I want to jump into that cold, bottomless ocean instead of face what comes next. I can’t, though. I must stay alive. I have to make sure Cade is okay, and I have to get through this so I can have a life.

This can’t be the end for me. I won’t let it be.

I’ve had sex now. Just how bad can it be to go through the motions with someone else? I know logically, it won’t be sex, not really; it will be rape, but if I don’t resist, they might not hurt me. Maybe I can close my eyes and think of Dimitri. Try to make it less horrific, and maybe I can survive.

Maybe Dimitri and I don’t have a future, but he gave me a precious gift. After years of feeling alone and unmoored, he showed me, if only for a blindingly brief moment in time, that real connection can happen. He showed me what pleasure my body could bring.

I can find that again one day if I can get free. How long do you stay with someone after being sold? I doubt it’s a lifelong contract but probably a long enough time to give me the chance to escape, and I’d never stop trying. Once free, I can get a job. Have a career, a husband, bring up Cade.

I just need to survive. Whatever comes next, I must survive, and I will never stop looking for a way out.

The boat finally comes to a stop in a small, secluded cove. I’m bundled off it, a dark blanket thrown over me, and then I’m in the back of a car.

The journey seems to last forever with my sight being compromised, but eventually, the car rolls to a halt. The blanket is removed, and I see men on either side of me, weapons trained on me.

One of the men hands me two pills and a bottle of water.

“I don’t want them,” I say. “You might be trying to kill me.”

He sighs and clenches his jaw. “Trust me; the last thing we want is to touch a hair on your head. We have been told to deliver you in pristine condition.”

His words are not a comfort.

“But I will force these down your throat if I must.”

I take the pills and swallow them with the proffered water.

Within five minutes, I can’t keep my eyes open.

“She’s going out,” one of the men says. “Let’s load her up.”

One of the men picks me up, cradling me like a child almost, and the blanket is wrapped around me again. They’re being awfully gentle.

My eyes open and close a few times. I see plane steps. I’m carried up them, head lolling. It’s a private jet. Opulent. I’m carefully deposited in a seat, arranged so they can put my seat belt on me, and covered in the blanket.

Nice treatment for a woman about to be sold like cattle. The men waiting for me really want me to be returned to them in perfect condition. The bastards. What will happen when they find out I’m no longer a virgin? Will they kill me? Fear washes over me, but the sleep trying to claim me is strong.

Then we’re taxiing, and I lose the battle. The dark claims me.

Metal. All I can taste is metal. It’s coating my mouth and throat. I want to retch, but I’m so exhausted I can barely move.

“Would you like a drink?” The voice is female. Accented. Polite.

“Where am I?”

“I’ll fetch the master, but do you want a drink first?” The woman smiles at me, cool and aloof.

Master? What the hell? Where am I?

I struggle to sit up. I see that I’m in a beautiful room. Heavy silk curtains frame old windows, falling to the floor in wave after wave of golden fabric. The walls are papered in William Morris printed, thick embossed paper.

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